Discussions in the past have made it clear that the current definition of “Debian Developer” (AKA someone who is a member of the Debian project) should be modified and made more flexible. There have been attempts in the past to do something similar, notably Debian Maintainers (DM) [GR-DM], and to some extent debian-community.org [D-C], but these have only addressed parts of the whole issue.
Developer Status================

Summary of this post——————– Discussions in the past have made it clear that the current definition of “Debian Developer” (AKA someone who is a member of the Debian project) should be modified and made more flexible. There have been attempts in the past to do something similar, notably Debian Maintainers (DM) [GR-DM], and to some extent debian-community.org [D-C], but these have only addressed parts of the whole issue.

We plan to integrate DM more closely into the NM process/system while keeping the spirit of easing entry into Debian for newcomers. At the same time we add a separate track for less-technical contributors.

If you are an existing Debian Developer or Debian Maintainer, don't beafraid, we are not going to take anything away from you.

Currently becoming a Debian Developer means passing through all of theNew Maintainer process. People that passed this get the @debian.orgmail-forwarding, an account on all (developer-accessible) Debianmachines, voting and upload rights. It is a process that requireswork from prospective Developers, and depending on their available timeand the effort put into it, it can take a bit of time.

Some time ago a few Developers thus went and pushed forward the“Debian Maintainer” status. DM allows newcomers to upload theirpackages relatively early, without having to go through the “full” NMprocess. So far it has worked quite well for the people involved, butthe way it was instantiated outside of most existing structures hasalways made other groups in Debian uncomfortable. The ftp-mastershave to deal with the technical implementation that does not fit wellwith the rest of the archive, and the account and keyring managerswould like to remain the authoritative source for “who is in Debian”.

Debian is about developing a free operating system, but there's morein an operating system than just software and packages. If we wanttranslators, documentation writers, artists, free software advocates,et al. to get endorsed by the project and feel proud for it, we needsome way to acknowledge that. This is where our proposal comes in.

Now let us describe the way the account status is meant to be handledin future.

A new user can start out in two ways depending on their personalpreference. The first is the non-technical way:

Debian Contributor——————A DC is someone that has a strong relation with Debian through the workthey are doing for/around Debian. Possible examples are translators anddocumentation writers.

DC have to pass the ID check, agree to the Social Contract/DFSG and havesuccessfully answered a set of questions[DCDMQ] similar to the ones usedin the current first P&P step.[TEMPL]

The second way is the technical one:

Debian Maintainer—————–A DM has the same strong relation with Debian a DC has, but additionallywants to maintain a limited set of packages without the help of a sponsor.

A DM has to pass the same checks a DC has and very few questions from theT&S part[DCDMQ].

A (very) small T&S basically, the most important T&S questions for them.

They are allowed to upload their own (source) package. The allowed listof (source) packages to upload can be edited by any member of the NMcommittee[NMC], who will do a package check before they add new packagesto the DM's list.In contrast to current DM this is based on source packages and allowsuploads of new binary components, which have to pass NEW, too.

While, strictly speaking, this increases the barrier to get DM comparedto the current implementation of DM, we do not think it is anunreasonable or too high level. Anyone who is able to get a package puttogether in a lintian clean way will be able to get DM without mucheffort or time used.

Those two “classes” are the initial set in which every NM will endup. After six months as DC or DM one might chose to become aDebian Member or Debian Developer. This – ensures that the interest in Debian isn't short-term. – enables them to learn more about the workings in Debian and generally helps them for the next step. – leaves everyone the option to stay DC or DM, if they do not want/need more rights.

After the 6 months time in Debian Contributor/Maintainer are passed,applicants can apply to get Debian Developer status. There are now 2different “classes” of DD status available, one with and one withoutupload rights. To not add confusion we selected to name them “Debianmember” (no upload rights) and “Debian Developer” (upload rights).Both are project members, i.e. with voting and all other constitutionalrights, the term “classes” does not indicate any kind of “first” or“second” level membership.

Debian Member————-A DME is someone that previously had DC or DM for at least 6 months butadditionally want to have voting rights or needs a login on a debian.orgmachine for their work.

A DME can nominate themself as DPL, can be delegated rights from the DPLand can start any GR, basically do everything our foundation documentsallow project members to do.

DME are not able to freely upload any package, but DME can have the sameupload rights a DM can have, ie. own packages, if they follow(ed) the DMrules for this.

Following our Constitution §8.1.2, DAM declares that Debian Members areto be treated as “Developers who do not maintain packages” wherever theterm “Developer” is used in one of our documents.

Debian Developer—————-A DD is exactly the same as a DME, with the one and only notableexception that a DD can freely upload any package to the archive.

To become a DD one has to pass all the checks a DM has to pass andadditionally answer all the rest of the questions from the T&S steps inNM.[Or do whatever T&S checks are used by the AM. Focusing on the questionsis just for this procedure, as we are used to them.]

contributor.debian.org mail—————————We are considering to implement an @contributor.debian.org mailforwarding setup which would be open for DC/DM too. Such addresses wouldcontinue to be valid even after a person becomes a DD/DME. If sufficientsupport for the idea is found then this will probably be implementedonce the new debian.org mail setup is in place.

Changes to existing Debian Developers————————————-No changes are done to existing Debian Developers, until they ask forit. If you want to drop down to DME, no matter if you want to keep a fewpackages maintained like a DM does, drop the NM-Committee a mail.

Changes to existing Debian Maintainers and NMs———————————————-No changes will be done to existing Debian Maintainers, and the6 months waiting time will not be applied to NMs who have alreadyapplied to become DD, unless they ask to be handled using the new way.

There is one exception – the handling of the packages allowed to uploadwill change. In future this will be a list maintained by the NM-committee.At the time of migrating from the old to the new way, Ftpmaster willconvert the existing DM-Upload-Allowed fields into that list, so thereshould be no interruption in your ability to upload. The converted listwill be made public before this happens, so to be sure – please checkit at that time. (Follow debian-devel-announce and you will notice it).

Applications and Advocations—————————-NM applicants, no matter if it is for Debian Contributor or Maintainerstatus, have to sign up using the interface provided atnm.debian.org[NMDO]. This application, as well as the advocation mailFrom one or more existing Debian Member or Developer will be copied tothe debian-newmaint mailinglist for public review.

Changes to the DM Keyring————————-Keyring management will be moved to the control of keyring-maint. TheNM committee will decide who will be added or removed, similiar to theway keyring-maint and DAM currently work together.

Footnotes=========[DCDMQ] The intention is that the NM-Committee will select the actual set of questions used, not this mail. It can easily be adjusted to fit whatever the current situation may want to have. For DM we imagine it would be a very limited T&S set, like making sure someone can deal with the BTS and knows the basic tools (lintian, dput/dupload, debsign). It is not meant as a full (first part) of NM and lots of boring tasks before one get DM, but as a basic check for a minimum knowledge.

[NMDO] This interface helps multiple things, like making sure no applicants chose an already existing account name, giving a central place to look at the current NM status, clearly showing what is going on/missing for an applicant.